Nigerian Stock Exchange delists Dangote Flour Mills after takeover

NIGERIA – The Nigerian Stock Exchange has delisted the entire issued share capital of Dangote Flour Mills Plc from its listing effective Monday, 18 November 2019.

The statement issued by the Nigerian bourse read in part, “Dealing members are hereby notified that DFM was on November 18, 2019 delisted from the daily official list of the Exchange.”

This comes after the shareholders of Dangote Flour Mills Plc endorsed the acquisition of the company by Crown Flour Mills Limited, the Nigerian subsidiary of Olam International Limited in October for N120 billion (US$331m).

After the acquisition of Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Key members of the board stepped down from their positions at the flour milling company.

Asue Ighodalo, Thabo Mabe, Halima Aliko Dangote, Olakunle Alake, Arnold Ekpe, and Yabawa Lawan Wabi (MNI) all stepped down from the board on Friday, November 1, 2019.

In turn, four directors were appointed to replace them i.e. Venkataramani Srivathsan; Chandrasekaran Balaji; Mukul Mathur; and Anurag Shukla.

The Managing Director of Crown Flour Mills Limited, Anurag Shukia said his company intends to maintain and expand DFM’s business as well as provide enhanced manufacturing capacity and create synergies to deliver improved products to customers across the country.

DFM will also enable the company to double its production capacity by adding five flour mills that it already operates across Nigeria into Crown Mills operations, a deal that gives Olam economies of scale to operate in the sector.

The acquisition of DFM marks the third deal that Olam has closed in Nigeria as the global agribusiness company continues to cement its leadership position in Nigeria’s milling industry and execute its growth strategy in Africa.

With the acquisition, Olam said it seeks to improve efficiencies in the company to ensure that the DFM is well positioned to tap into the growing milling and baking industry.

Currently, Olam through its subsidiaries in Nigeria has operations in milling sector and recently made a US$150 million investment in poultry and fish feed production to further expand its operations.

Olam says that despite the recent economic hardships in the country, the company believes that the Nigerian economy is going to ‘explode’ in the near future adding it will continue investing in the country.